Kyprianou’s New Year hospital visit

What a way to bring in the New Year. The European Commissioner for Health, Markos Kyprianou, was rushed into hospital on New Year’s Day with acute appendicitis.

The commissioner was unable to strike any small blow for cross-border healthcare: he was in his native Cyprus at the time. An operation to remove the appendix followed, delaying his return to Brussels.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …